A law graduate who duped his gravely ill fiancée into believing he was a doctor has been sentenced to five years in jail.
The actions of Michael Ward (32) from Clash Road, Little Island, Co Cork, meant that critical cancer treatment for the now 38-year-old woman was delayed for nearly three months.
Ward was sentenced to six years for reckless endangerment and three years for assault to run concurrently with the last year suspended in the event of good behaviour.
Ward initially pleaded not guilty to the charges but changed his plea after his fiancee, who cannot be named for legal reasons, gave evidence.
The deceit happened between August and October 2006 when the woman found out that he was not a doctor but a second-year law student.
In a victim impact statement, she said Ward had only pleaded guilty when all hope of acquittal was gone, four days into the trial and three years on from the initial deception.
"I firmly believe his constant stalling tactics once he was charged were an attempt to delay things to such an extent that I would, in fact, be too sick or not alive to testify," she said.
Sentencing Ward, Mr Justice Peter Charleton cited the victim impact statement and said he too was unimpressed by Ward's initial not-guilty plea, which forced his victim to testify.
Mr Justice Charleton said he accepted that Ward had not intentionally set out to harm his ex-fiancee, but he, nevertheless, had recklessly endangered her life.
He said the deception was on the "higher end of the scale" and it was hard to think of a worse case of betrayal.
Detective Garda Kevin Keys told prosecuting counsel, Mr Paul Coffey SC, that Ward and the woman had "a brief intense relationship" during which time she knew him as Michael O'Brien, a paediatrician and medical doctor at Dublin's Mater Hospital. He was actually a second-year law student at the time.
The couple got engaged in October 2006 and a week later she discovered his deceit in relation to his identity and his occupation.
The woman was later diagnosed with a life threatening and rare form of cancer which had gone untreated for eight to ten weeks after Ward "undertook the clinical management of her condition".
Mr Justice Charleton accepted the statement by Ward's counsel, Patrick MacEntee SC, who said Ward was a "seriously conflicted" man who had some goodness in him, but also had problems dealing with reality.
However, the judge doubted Ward's feeling for his fiancee and a love letter that he sent to her had to be seen in that light.
